(To Miss Marion Terry, “Mary Ann Bessie Terry.’)

The royal MAB dethroned, discrowned
By fairy rebels wild,
Has found a home on English ground,
And lives an English child.
I know it, Maiden, when I see
A fairy-tale upon your knee —
And note the page that idly lingers —
Beneath those still and listless fingers
And mark those dreamy looks that stray
To some bright vision far away,
Still seeking, in the pictured story,
The memory of a vanished glory.

THE END


 = Riccardo LaSpina